Nonviolent direct actions against coal: 2010

Information on earlier actions as well as on the anti-coal movement in particular states or countries can be found at the following articles:
 * Nonviolent direct actions against coal: 2011
 * Nonviolent direct actions against coal: 2009
 * Nonviolent direct actions against coal: 2008
 * Nonviolent direct actions against coal: 2004-2007
 * Coal Finance Day of Action
 * Coal Activist Videos
 * Coal Activist Videos: Direct Action
 * Coal Activist Videos: Mountaintop removal
 * State-by-State Guide to Information on Coal in the United States
 * International Information on Coal
 * Citizen groups working on coal issues - 350+ groups
 * Power companies and agencies in the United States

Background
Nonviolent direct action - a term which, in contemporary social movements, is usually used to refer to acts of civil disobedience, in which activists blockade or occupy public or private space - has become an increasingly common tactic of anti-coal climate activists since 2005. While Greenpeace has used direct action tactics since the 1970's, since 2004 other climate justice, Appalachian environmental justice and anti-mountaintop removal movements (such as Rising Tide, Rainforest Action Network, Earth First!, Mountain Justice Summer, and indigenous groups) have used direct action tactics in order to escalate pressure on coal mining and power companies, financial institutions which invest in coal companies, and government officials that support the coal industry. Anti-coal activists have staged dozens of such direct actions in the past few years, many of which have been highly successful at directing public attention toward the growing anti-coal movement.

Definition and history of nonviolent direct action
The term "direct action" refers to political activities which attempt to bring about changes in the world in a direct and unmediated way. This concept of mediation is key to the distinction, drawn by many proponents of direct action, between direct and symbolic action: in a symbolic action, participants appeal to government officials or other power-holders to make changes on their behalf, while, in a direct action, participants directly make the changes that they want to see in the world.

Several categories of political and economic activities can thus be understood as direct actions:


 * 1) Strikes or boycotts against economic authorities
 * 2) Blockades and occupations of physical spaces
 * 3) Destruction of property or resources
 * 4) Violent resistance against authorities
 * 5) Building alternatives to existing social/economic relationships

January 21, 2010: Tree-Sitters Shut Down Massey Energy Mountaintop Removal Operation in West Virginia
Three non-violent climate change activists associated with Climate Ground Zero, perched themselves on 60-foot high platforms to protest the Bee Tree Mine on Coal River Mountain. Reports indicate that the protesters halted the day's operations. The activists were David Aaron Smith, Amber Nitchman and Eric Blevins. According to Climate Ground Zero reports, the three scaled trees by the access road to Massey Energy's mountaintop removal operation near the company's Brushy Fork Impoundment.

January 2010: Police arrest 11 at Scotland Coal Mine
Protesters associated with Mainshill Solidarity Camp were arrested after a six month occupation of an opencast mining site in Scotland on January 25, 2010. The protests began in June of 2009 over the Scottish Coal operation. Over ten activists were arrested in total. As the Guardian UK reported:


 * The police, supported by the national evictions team, raided the Mainshill protest camp near Douglas in Lanarkshire at 8.30am this morning, to start clearing about 40 climate campaigners now occupying tunnels, tree houses, and homemade, barricaded huts.


 * By 3pm today 11 protesters had been removed, and were charged with offences including aggravated trespass and breach of the peace.


 * Some were forcibly taken down from platforms erected roughly 100ft high in nearby trees by a specialist civilian eviction company from Wales now routinely used across the UK by police, bailiffs and, in Scotland, sheriff's officers, to combat environmental protests.

The opencast mine where the protest took place is owned by the Earl of Home, Mainshill. The location has been the target of many protests in central Scotland against the practice of opencast mining. In all there are four other opencast mines in the immediate area around Mainshill.

February 18, 2010: No-coal Activists Stage Sit-in at Marfork Coal Company in West Virginia
Mike Roselle and two other environmental activists affiliated with Climate Ground Zero delivered a citizen's arrest warrant to the president of Marfork Complex on February 18, 2010, a subsidiary of Massey Energy, for allegedly violating West Virginia State Code §61-3E-10 for "wanton endangerment involving destructive devices, explosive materials or incendiary devices." The three were arrested after chaining themselves to chairs in the company's lobby. A cash bail was set for $5,000 to two of the activists, Joseph Hamsher and Thomas Smyth, causing the two to go on a hunger strike in protest of what they believed to be too high of a bail fee. As of February 22, 2010 the three remained in jail. A receptionist for the company was said to have had an anxiety attack following the event.

February 26, 2010: ‘Die-in’ at Xcel Headquarters in Denver, Colorado
On February 26, 2010, local citizens in Denver staged a 'die-in' at the headquarters for Xcel Energy in opposition to the utility’s plan to build a new coal-fired power plant, Comanche 3, in Pueblo, Colorado. The plant would be the largest in the coal-fired power station in the state. Protesters cited environmental as well as social and economic issues as reasons for their actions. “Our leaders are failing to lead and Xcel is failing to take their responsibility seriously. Xcel should expect more protests and actions unless they start closing down coal plants and moving Colorado to 100% renewable electricity,” Kate Clark, a Power Past Coal activist. The protest was part of an ongoing series of actions by concerned citizens in Colorado who seek to end coal-power in the state.

March 2010: EPA Headquarters Protest
In late March 2010, environmental activists, some associated with the group Rainforest Action Network, camped out in front of Washington DC's headquarters for 32 hours in an attempt to send a message to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to end mountain top removal. Purple tents were erected and protesters perched on tripods. As reported by the blog It’s Getting Hot in Here, which explained the action:


 * Almost every person who passed through our ‘Purple Mountain’s Majesty’ and underneath the banner “EPA: Pledge to End Mountaintop Removal Coal Mining in 2010” has been incredibly encouraging of our action. EPA employees, tourists and DC residents all demonstrated their support on the issue.


 * In addition to the many comments from EPA employees that “we are doing a great job” and “please keep doing what you’re doing,” Lisa Jackson personally tweeted her response. Administrator Jackson said in her tweet: “People are here today expressing views on MTM, a critical issue to our country. They’re concerned abt human health & water quality & so am I."

Author Jeff Biggers notes that while Lisa Jackson recognizes the protests, she nonetheless used the acronym "MTM" which is the industry phrase for mountain top mining instead of the activists term, MTR, which is short for mountain top removal. Biggers also notes that an EPA spokeswoman yesterday said the protest was “based on a fundamental misunderstanding of EPA’s role” and explained that the EPA does not regulate the mining industry, but is only “responsible for ensuring that projects comply with the Clean Water Act.”

“Except,” notes Biggers, “it’s the mining industry that isn’t complying with the Clean Water Act.”

March 22, 2010: Protesters Set up Camp to Protest Mine in UK
On March 22, 2010, anti-coal activists began protesting UK Coal's proposed coal mine near the communities of New Works and Little Wenlock. UK Coal promised to take legal action against the protesters if they did not remove themselves from the site. The protest began in response to the coal company's proposed opencast mine to be dug in the area. Dozens of protesters, some camped over night, sought to disrupt the operation with non-violent direct action. One of the protesters, who wouldn't be named, said: “We object because it’s so close to The Wrekin and people’s homes.”

Another protester, who also did not want to be named, said: “They already started to cut down trees which they said were around 20 years old, but they’re not, they’re about 150 years old.”

As of April 28, 2010 the site of the proposed mine was still being occupied by anti-coal activists. At that time UK Coal was seeking legal authority to arrest the protesters. The government run company noted that operations were still set to begin by June 2010.

March 26, 2010: Activists Protest Opencast Mine in UK
On Mary 26, 2010, 25 anti-coal activists occupied the site of the Blair House Opencast coal mining operation. The UK Coal company was operator of the mine. As reported by UK Indymedia about the event:


 * UK Coal have been given permission by Fife Council to mine 720,000 tonnes of coal from the site, a decision that disregarded the wishes of local residents. Nearly 150 people objected to the planning application for this site and there were no letters of support. The Council, in their defence, wouldn't dare refuse another open cast coal mine application after their refusal of ATH Resources mine at Muir Dean on the insistence of Crossgates residents, was overturned by the government and cost them financially.


 * The site is ecologically diverse and home to a population of Great Crested Newts, a European Protected Specie, the Black Wood Wildlife site, designated as an area that once had ancient woodland and is now home to birch forests and oak trees, orchids, breeding birds and wintering birds, bats, red squirrels and Brown hares, listed on the UK Biodiversity Action Plan. The Cowstrandburn river will be diverted and undoubtedly polluted, along with other watercourses in the area.


 * Some 2.11 million tonnes of CO2 will be released into the atmosphere from the combustion of the coal, with more still being released from the mining process. None of this will be captured and stored. New coal mines such as this one undermine the governments plans to reduce Scotland's CO2 emissions and highlight the hypocrisy of government ministers and local councils when it comes to reducing emissions.


 * Fiona Richards, one of the people currently occupying the site said, “This new coal mine is only one of 20 such others to have recently been given planning permission in Scotland. If we are to have any chance of limiting dangerous climate change and protecting communities from carbon-intensive industries, direct action must be taken as councillors, mining companies and the government have shown their unwillingness to solve the problems we face.”

March 28, 2010: Coal shipments from Australia’s Newcastle port disrupted
On March 28, 2010 activists associated with Rising Tide in Australia attempted to blockade a shipping channel to disrupt the import of coal to the Newcastle port. The action was part of an annual protest taken by the group, so authorities were on alert. In all 70 small crafts occupied the waters, however normal loading of coal was not entirely halted said company spokesman.

April 2010: Philippine Protests Against Coal Mining
In April 2010, local community members in Cantilan, Surigao del Sur, led by Mayor Tomasa Guardo, led a protest action opposing mining activities in the area by Marcventures Mining and Development Corp. (MMDC), setting up a picket line adjacent to the road leading to the mining. The protest action in Cantilan is among several protest actions occurring around the country calling for a ban on large-scale mining in the country. Protesters believe that mining in Important Biodiversity Areas (IBAs) such as Mount Hilong-hilong, which covers the forest in Cantilan, is detrimental to the diminishing wildlife in Surigao del Sur.

April 2010: Coal Activists End Protest at Opencast Mine in UK
Protesters who occupied an opencase mine operated by UK Coal to highlight an opencast coal development in the town of Fife believe ended their protest after two weeks in April 2010. The activists left the mine site prior to a court order that would have forced them to. In a statement the group wrote:


 * The camp occupied the site for a week-and-a-half to show UK Coal and other mine operators that no new mine or coal infrastructure is safe and out of reach of protesters. The intention of the camp from the beginning was to hold a short-term occupation to bring attention to the issue, make links with local communities and cost UK Coal money. One of the primary aims of the camp was to cost UK Coal money and make it more difficult for the company to cause such destruction in other places.

April 2, 2010: JPMorgan Chase Protest in Chicago
On Friday April 2, 2010 activists associated with the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) in Chicago staged a "die-in" at a JPMorgan Chase bank in downtown to protest the bank's investment in mountaintop removal (MTR) projects. Between thirty and forty people took part in the protest but none were arrested. It was RAN's first such direct action campaign to pressure the company to abandon its MTR investments.

"JPMorgan Chase is on the run in this campaign and they are looking for a way to end this campaign," said RAN activist Adam Gaya. "[They are seeing that] people are willing to go beyond making a phone call and sending a email [and are] canceling their account and taking direct action."

April 22 protests in Philippines
On Earth Day 2010 (April 22), 4,000 environmentalists protested in solidarity with rallies in Tampakan, South Cotabato, and Maasim, Sarangani, against the proposed Kamanga power station by CONAL Holdings, and mining activities in these provinces.

Protesters in Sarangani included leaders of religious groups, fishermen, indigenous people, and foreign divers who said the project will destroy the waters of Maasim, because of the area's ecologically important coral reefs. Mindanao State University students dressed as Na'vi from the film Avatar marched toward the fenced property of the proposed plant site. The protesters and media were refused entry to the CONAL Community Development Office. A slight commotion occurred when four unidentified men suspected to be working for CONAL were seen with cameras, video recorders and handheld radios at the rally.

Elson Helsa of Maasim Peoples Coalition on Climate Change (MP3C) expressed fears CONAL might finance local candidates who supported the setting up of the plant. Sarangani Gov. Miguel Dominguez, Maasim Mayor Aniceto Lopez Jr., and Kiamba Mayor Rommel Falgui announced their support to the project during a community consultation held in 2009.

In Tampakan, the protest started with a prayer rally followed by a press conference calling for a stop to the mining activities of XTRATA-Sagitarious Mines Inc. The protesters demanded the pullout of XTRATA-SMI and called for sustainable development, the protection of watersheds and respect for indigenous people’s rights.

April 26, 2010: Coal Train Blockaded in Wales
On Monday 26 April activists associated with Rising Tide blockaded the railtrack which carries coal from the opencast mine at Ffos-y-Fran in Merthyr Tydfil in Wales to Aberthaw B Power Station in South Wales. It took the combined efforts of British Rail Police and South Wales Police over 8 hours to remove the last of the protesters. According to a press release from Rising Tide, 18 People from Bristol and Bath were charged under the Malicious Damages Act of 1861, a law to protect the interests of 19th Century rail owners. If convicted they face anything up to a life sentence in prison.

May 2010: Coal Plant protesters injured in Philippines
In May 2010, a Greenpeace activist participating in a peaceful protest against a coal power plant outside Manila was beaten by local plant security, who drew weapons and fired warning shots at people armed with nothing but a banner. Four other Greenpeace activists were hospitalized after having stones thrown at them.

May 17, 2010: Climate Ground Zero Activists Blockade Massey Energy Headquarters
On the morning of May 17, 2010 two activists associated with Climate Ground Zero erected a tripod tent on the driveway of Massey Energy's regional headquarters in Boone county, West Virginia. The two activists, EmmaKate Martin and Benjamin Bryant, locked themselves to the base of one of the poles. Both were arrested and charged with misdemeanor offenses of trespassing, conspiracy to commit a misdemeanor, obstructing an officer and littering. Their bails were set for $100,000 each by West Virgina Magistrate Snodgrass.

The banner they hung from the tripod read “Massey, Profits Before People & Mountains, Fight Back!” The bail was the largest ever set against any activists conducting non-violent actions against mountaintop removal in West Virginia.

May 19, 2010: Tractor Blockade in Queensland, Australia
On May 19, 2010, 54 cotton and grain harvesters and tractors formed a kilometer-long blockade in Queensland, Australia, to protest the expansion of the coal seam gas mining industry on the Darling Downs. The blockade was accompanied by a rally of 500 farmers and other concerned citizens, organized by Save Our Darling Downs. Speakers expressed concern that extraction of methane gas from coal seams would require use of large quantities of underground water from the Great Artesian Basin, thereby undermining local agriculture and threatening farming communities such as Cecil Plains.

June 23, 2010: Raven Coal Protest, Vancouver Island, Canada
On Wednesday, June 23, 2010 activists from the Wilderness Committee and other concerned citizens gathered in front of Compliance Energy's annual general meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The people were protesting plans by the company to construct the Raven underground coal mine in the Comox Valley. Wilderness Committee Pacific Coast Campaigner, Tri Donaldson listed concerns about mining pollution damage to clean water, which would have a devastating impact on the regions shell fish industry. Also of concern is the huge role that the burning of coal world wide has in worsening climate change.

July 8, 2010: Rainforest Action Network Activists Stage Sit-in at EPA Headquarters
On July 8, 2010 activists associated with the Rainforest Action Network (RAN) staged a sit-in at the EPA headquarters in Washington DC. The activists demanded stronger protection for Appalachia’s drinking water and an end to the devastating practice of mountaintop removal (MTR) coal mining, citing in particular the Pine Creek permit authorized a week prior for a project in West Virginia. As a RAN press release stated:


 * After entering the EPA building, activists sat down in the center of the lobby, locked themselves together with metal ‘lock boxes,’ and began to play West Virginia’s adopted state song, John Denver’s ‘Take me Home, Country Roads,’ mixed with intermittent sounds of Appalachia’s mountains being blown apart by MTR explosives. An additional activist climbed to the top of the EPA front door on Constitution Ave and blocked the door with a banner reading: ‘Blowing up mountains for coal contaminates Appalachia’s water, Stop MTR.’

July 14, 2010: Lockdown on Coal River Mountain
Two protesters with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero locked themselves to mining equipment on the Massey Energy's Bee Tree mine, close to the Brushy Fork sludge impoundment. They were joined by two people filling supportive roles. All four were arrested and held on $12,000 bail altogether.

July 22, 2010: Rainforest Action Network Disrupt Massey CEO Don Blankenship’s talk at the National Press Club in Washington, DC
Rainforest Action Network (RAN) attended Massey Energy CEO Don Blankenship’s National Press Club speaking event on July 22, 2010. RAN disrupted Blankenship's talk by holding signs that stated "Massey Coal: Not Clean, Safe or Forever". The focus of the protest focused on Massey's moutaintop removal strip mines and their ongoing safety violations which led to the death of 29 miners in the Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster in West Virginia. The protesters were escorted out by security.

“Massey is the BP of the coal industry: reckless, arrogant and an obstacle to the clean energy future that the president and the country is calling for,” said Amanda Starbuck of the Rainforest Action Network in a press release about the action. “The bottom line is that clean, safe and forever are three words that Massey Energy can never credibly say.”

September 2010: Illinois Black Cross Alliance
In southern Illinois, scores of black crosses are being laid out at coal mines, strip mines, coal-fired plants, coal ash piles, and at the Southern Illinois University Coal Research Center. Citing Illinois as the birthplace of the coal industry, and part of the "Obama administration's plan to dangerously experiment with carbon capture and storage technologies for coal-fired plants," a new Black Cross Alliance campaign announced plans to construct symbolic black crosses at coal mining and coal-burning landmarks in the state and across the nation to serve as a public warning: coal is deadly. Invoking William Jennings Bryan's "Cross of Gold" speech, the Black Cross Alliance called on the Obama administration and the state of Illinois to halt billions of dollars in taxpayer subsidies for multinational coal corporations, and instead re-invest in a sustainable clean energy policy for the future for the coalfield regions.

September 26, 2010: Protests Close Australia Coal Port
Climate change activists in Australia associated with Rising Tide attached themselves to equipment inside the world's largest coal port, in Newcatle, Australia, shutting down its operations, the terminal operator and protesters stated.

The protestors stopped operations at all three terminals operated by Port Waratah Coal Services, which typically runs a continuous operation, a company spokesman told the Reuters news agency.

"All operations have temporarily stopped," the spokesman said, after about 50 protesters took action at dawn on Sunday morning. Some attached themselves to loaders and machinery inside the facility, while others demonstrated with banners.

News reports stated that two were arrested during the protests.

September 27, 2010: More than 100 arrested in Washington DC for coal protest
At a protest in front of the White House in opposition to mountaintop removal (MTR), over 100 people were arrested. In all, it was stated that 2,000 people took part in protests around the city. Hundreds of people marched down Pennsylvania Avenue to Lafayette Park, which faces the White House, according to protesters and media accounts. The march included at least one stop, at U.S. EPA headquarters, protesters said. It was reported that James Hansen, who heads the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, was among those arrested.

The crowd of mostly youthful ralliers carried signs like "Blowing Up Mountains for Coal Poisons People" and "Mountain ecosystems won't grow back." Some carried small white crosses adorned with messages such as "water pollution" and "corporate greed."

The protest was called Appalachia Rising. Appalachian residents, retired coal miners, scientists and faith leaders called upon the Obama Administration to end the "destructive practice that poisons communities and streams" and "the immediate veto of the Spruce 1 Mine project," calling instead for sustainable economic diversification for the region.

After a march from Freedom Plaza and a rally at Lafayette Park, more than 100 staged a sit-in in front of the White House to demand President Obama end mountaintop mining. The 100 people arrested reportedly included Appalachian residents, retired coal miners, climate scientist James Hansen, and faith leaders. In addition to the non-violent civil disobedience at the White House, 30 people were arrested during a sit-in at PNC Bank for protesting the bank’s role as the lead U.S. financier of MTR.

10/10/10
10/10/10 was a global day of action on October 10, 2010, designed to spur community actions to address climate change and create the basis for increased political action. It was organized by 350.org.

October 13, 2010: Protesters rally to shut down Chicago Power Plant
On October 13, 2010 protesters in Chicago rallied to shut down Chicago's two coal-fired power plants, Fisk Generating Station in Pilsen and Crawford Generating Station in Little Village. Midwest Generation, a subsidiary of Edison International, owns the plants.

“This is the year we’re going to end coal in Chicago,” said Chicago author Jeff Biggers.

Greenpeace and the Pilsen Environmental Rights and Reform Organization (PERRO) organized the Chicago Clean Power Coalition rally at Alivio Medical Center.

A group of people in T-shirts lettered with “Quit Coal” and wearing green cardboard oxygen masks stood outside in the hot sun to listen to speakers explain why clean air is so important.

“This is the year the next governor and the next mayor will announce that these (plants) are shutting down,” Biggers said.

The coalition sought to raise awareness about pollution that is emitted from both power plants, which are located in dense urban areas.

October 19, 2010: Coal River Valley Residents Declare State of Emergency, Meet with Governor Joe Manchin; Seven Arrested in Sit-In at Governor's Office
Coal River Valley residents and supporters associated with Mountain Justice and Climate Ground Zero delivered a letter to Governor's Manchin's office in the State Capitol building. The statement from Coal River Valley residents called on Manchin to use his executive powers to halt mountaintop removal mining operations on Coal River Mountain, one of the last intact mountains remaining in the Coal River Valley area.

Seven protestors, ages 18 to 22, were arrested in a sit-in at Governor Manchin’s State Capitol office. They were cited with misdemeanor trespassing and obstruction for refusing to leave the office at closing time.

November 1, 2010: Day of Dead procession held in Chicago
On November 1, 2010 Chicago activists held a "Day of the Dead" rally in "remembrance of the lives lost" to the pollution caused by the Fisk Generating Station and Crawford Generating Stations. Author Jeff Biggers wrote:


 * More than 66 premature deaths, 104 heart attacks, and thousands of asthma attacks and cases of chronic bronchitis--that is the tragic symbol at the altar of Chicago's decrepit coal-fired plants in the Pilsen and Little Village neighborhoods.

"The public can't afford the huge health costs from the Fisk and Crawford coal plants in Chicago neighborhoods," said Howard Learner, Executive Director of the Environmental Law & Policy Center, on the release of the organization's report last month. "It's time for Midwest Generation to be socially responsible and clean them up or shut them down."

November 2010: Sarangani residents (Philippines) protest coal-fired power plant
In November 2010, with the aid of Greenpeace activists a 75-boat flotilla and a human banner with an estimated 800 participants were formed in the town of Massim, Saranganito, a Philippines province. The group gathered to protest the development of a proposed 200-megawatt coal-fired power plant of Alcantara Group-led Conal Holdings Corp.

November 26, 2010: Protesters Blockade Condamine Highway to Stop QGC
Activists in Australia with the Western Downs Alliance and the Friends of the Earth protested against coal mining, underground gasification, and coal seam gas operations by QGC. The actions were intended to kick off the organizations' "Lock the Gate" campaign. Members of Western Downs Alliance, which represents landowners living near Tara, blockaded the Condamine Highway before marching on QGC’s Kenya gas field south of Chinchilla. In Brisbane, about 40 protestors led by Friends of Earth spokesman Drew Hutton picketed outside QGC’s headquarters.

Related SourceWatch articles

 * Nonviolent direct actions against coal: 2008
 * Nonviolent direct actions against coal: 2004-2007
 * Nonviolent direct actions against coal
 * Citizen groups working on coal issues
 * State-by-State Guide to Information on Coal in the United States
 * Proposed coal plants
 * Coal plant cancellations
 * What happened to the 151 proposed coal plants?
 * Coal Activist Videos
 * West Virginia and coal